On Tuesday 19th, May 1987, Luca Granger woke up laying on a wet surface of cement.

“Cough, cough… What is going on?” confused and feeling like muscles of his entire body got ruptured just an hour ago, Luca slowly opened his eyes. First things that came in front of his eyes were plastic shards of fridge shelves mixed with squashed fruits and veggies, behind them, uniform steel plate embedded deeply into the wall. Water flowing from sink pipes spreading slowly out of his vision. This scene stunned him for a while, flashing memory of yesterday suggesting he was the one responsible for it.

Am I some kind of demon? blank thoughts of Luca were interrupted by an alarm clock going off in the corridor, designed to wake up Granger household on time. Trying to get up was an ordeal, yet intense thirst and hunger prompted him to focus and get ready to live another day. Moving slowly to get into the bathroom, flat became almost unrecognizable to him, wallpapers crumpled and discolored, a classic painting of American Gothic hanging on corridor wall shrunken into an empty wooden frame, most boots and jackets not thick enough to survive extreme freezing and defrosting he made them go through last night.

Luckily bathroom suffered no damage if 1cm water carpet can be omitted. Eagerly throwing out his toothbrush from a cup sitting beside the faucet, Luca poured himself a glass of water. Looking over his reflected image for any horns or vertical pupils made him instantly notice a difference.

“My eyes!” Luca exclaimed, his eyes changed from previous deep green inherited from his mother into shining with royal luster ruby. Raven black, chin-length hair parted on 1/3rd, small heart-shaped face adorned by a little pinchable nose made his already adorable looks even more eye-catching.

In urgent, panicked motions that eventually confirmed a lack of tail, normal feet, and an absence of some sort of hellish “stigma”, Luca could breathe a sigh of relief, “Fortunately, it’s just my eyes.”. Next on the list of priorities was the ongoing flood, stopped by stuffing a pipe with some rags. Looking at the ruined state of his home, eventually, feelings of guilt and uncertainty made him shed tears.

Venting emotionally and eating a leftover slice of pizza the family was enjoying just moments before his outbreak put his thoughts into clarity. Calmed down and brainstorming about what to do now, Luca decided to put his apparent powers aside and wait for his parents to return before doing anything out of order.

Slowly getting into an everyday rhythm, Luca ran around to scavenge for what stayed relatively unaffected inside various containers, most fortunately his schoolbooks among such items, took a bath, and got ready to set off for school.

Outside Huntington Avenue No. 4, Boston, MA, stood a blonde primary school student dressed in a light blue summer dress holding hands with her younger sister wearing a white-red polka dot piece and sporting a long double ponytail.

“What is that lazy pig doing, we can be late today.” she complained.

“Can we run all the way, sis? Weather is so good.” smaller one got a bit excited with the prospect.

“Hum, that’s it.” replied the bigger sister.

“Hi Buffy, Dawn…” hushed voice greet them, with his head and hair down trying to hide his eyes' sudden change from the world, Luca didn’t want to speak much but silence would only make him stand out more.

Two pairs of hazel eyes turned to look at Luca, Dawn's free hand automatically going up and waving,

“Hey hey, Luca!” smiling returned the greeting Dawn.

“Six times eight?” quickly asked Buffy.

“Uh… forty-six?” answered without thought Luca.

“Haha, wrong! ” smugly said Buffy, “Forgot that Mrs. White told us about multiplication table test today? Nevermind, just follow us, flunky.” both little girls started trotting on route to trio’s destination, located just one corner away from their residences Mattahunt elementary school.

As an upscale midtown residential area at morning times, number of people heading to work made for dense traffic. With hopping distractions in front of him, nobody seemed to notice Luca which alleviated his anxiety significantly. They didn’t even notice, it’s fine, it’s fine. Just another day going on. I’m not a monster. he thought mainly to convince himself.

Just outside the school gates, two boys from his little pack of friends were waiting to meet. One of them looks like a starvation victim, with red hair and sickly pale skin. Second one, brown-haired and ordinary in appearance, wearing a walkman on his belt and holding headphones so both of them could listen.

“Oz, Jeff!” waved Buffy, Dawn scurried off to find her class friends.

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“Morning, thirty days left to vacation! Have you heard this new song, “Beds are burning”? Totally rad!” said Jeff, trying to draw attention.

“Whoa, how did you get this stuff!” cooperated Buffy pointing at his new electronic gadget.

“My brother is a total geek for all things with a battery or two, just gave me this little thing yesterday. Latest model, Sony just put it out on shelves.” proudly said Jeff.

“Hurry up to class my children. And put that thing down, we start with a test.” Mrs. White, the class teacher of Luca came from behind. Passing by she tried to ruffle his hair but Luca nervously dodged her hand which drew surprise, after all, he was her best-behaved and smartest pupil. Shrugging it off as a bad morning mood, she led everyone inside the school building.

“Good morning teacher.” said everyone, hurriedly going up a flight of stairs to classroom No. 11.

“Help me give everyone these papers Luca.” asked Mrs. White taking them out of her bag before opening the door. Inside the cramped classroom, most of nearly 40 seats were already taken, a couple of students loitering at the back of the class where some toys, books, and carpet suitable for juveniles to sit on were placed. Luca rushed along the tables handing out exam papers just when bell rang to begin lessons.

“Good morning students, today starts the last month of our year of learning and final assessment of multiplication table, reading with comprehension, and writing logical sentences. I hope everyone did your homework well, if all of you get no less than a C on my three subjects, we can spend last week going out to play together in the park.” said Mrs. White with a sunny smile on her face.

“That’s mega!”, “Don’t you dare drag everyone down, Daryl!”, “Hush and let me concentrate!”, everyone cheered and leaned forward to begin writing while Luca finally sat down with his deskmate at the very front of the class, just across Mrs. White.

“Thank you, sweetie.” she said to him, trying to cheer her schoolboy up.

“No problem Mrs. White.” said Luca with his head still down, trying to not draw any attention. Little did he know his teacher’s favorite thing to do so far in her career was to look at his adorable little face and imagine having a son like that. With her childless marriage ongoing for a decade already and her husband refusing to take a fertility test, if not for public pressure around the topic, divorce would long be overdue.

Focused on answering the questions for the next while, he swept his hair covering up the change in appearance aside. This immediately made Mrs. White aware of his change in appearance. “So cute…”, she muttered. Not to disrupt the class, she decided to wait a bit before talking to Luca again.

After bell for a break rang, she said, “Okay, everyone, take your papers to my desk.”. Kids broke out in a usual commotion, forming little groups to chat and play. Luca sat motionless until Oz came to pat him on the shoulder, “Come check out Jeff’s tape with posse, it’s dope.”

“N-no can do, I have to review this textbook.”, stammered Luca grabbing first thing from his bag.

“Luca, show me your fantabulous new contact lenses. I only heard about how they can now be colored, couldn’t even dream about it looking so fascinating. Is it time to replace my old glasses? How are my eyes in your opinion?” bombarded him Mrs. White with a slight blush squatting next to his seat.

“Contact lenses…?” muttered bewildered Luca, realizing that such a thing existed and he even heard his father contemplating a switch to wear them one day. “Yes, check out my contact lenses!” he stood up, turned around, and exclaimed with a relieved smile. The entire class got alarmed by his shout and placed their sight on his face just when Luca parted his bangs to reveal those shining eyes. A bit of interest, but generally unenthused response from his classmates made Luca even happier. There is no need to hide after all.

“Can it really be made so realistic?” tilting her head after running over to look closely said Buffy.

“You can buy some too if you know where to get them.” lied Luca.

“I want orange ones, how much would that be?” started to chat Buffy.

“Mm… dad bought it, I don’t know anything.” to cut it short said Luca.

Ignored Mrs. White got a chance to attack him from behind with a hug and pinch face, “Anyway, are they uncomfortable or hurt you somehow Luca?” she asked concerned.

“No, no. From now I will always put on contact lenses. I love them.” said Luca locked in a warm embrace. Big stone weighing on his mind lifted, rest of the school day went ordinary. Upon saying goodbye to Summers sisters, the closed door leading to his just recently perfectly ordinary flat was where he left it.

Maybe mom already cleaned up the mess, will I be punished? But I don’t know what I did… and how… pondered Luca ringing the doorbell. Lack of response made sure his parents didn’t yet return, so he took out the keys and entered. Water almost dried out or flew into an apartment below, yet the scene of devastation didn’t change the slightest.

Entering the kitchen to see a depression which perhaps if an adult stepped onto, would turn into a hole and a striking emptiness of a room without furniture, Luca staring at a loss muttered, “I’m hungry…” in a pleading tone he used to ask his mother for snacks.

To start from somewhere in cleaning what he considered his mess, Luca started to carefully pile up torn and unusable pieces of various materials scattered around. Two hours later, while the kitchen was still completely unusable, at least the rest of the rooms recovered quite nicely. During his search for trash, Luca found a small box with cash left for emergencies under his parent’s bed. This allowed him to visit nearby Burger King and bring home as many cans of beans as he could lift.

The following days went on with Luca's hopeful thoughts extinguished again and again. No idea what else to do but to keep his previous routine lest someone suspects him, he kept the charade up well enough until Friday afternoon a series of rapid knocks sounded in his ears. Are they back at last…? praying at heart Luca opened the door to see two serious-looking men, one standard office worker with glasses wearing a suit, briefcase in hand, and second an older police officer in a local Boston uniform. Disappointed yet again, Luca saw the man in suit start speaking.

“Excuse me, can you call out your parents little guy?”